1. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan received the Global Indian of the year 2016 award
a. At the third season of ‘NRI of the year’ award function, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was granted with the Global Indian of the Year 2016 award.
b. The theme of ‘NRI of the year’ award 2016 is ‘Contemporary Crusoes’. The NRI of the year award recognises the outstanding achievements of Indians across the globe.
c. These awards are given in 17 different categories like entrepreneur, professional, academics, arts & culture, philanthropy, special jury award, global icon of the year and India’s global icon award.
d. Star Tennis player Sania Mirza was also awarded as NRI of the year award 2016. Previously, Amitabh Bachchan & Shahrukh Khan were awarded as the global Indians of the year 2014 & 2015 respectively.
2. Graphene is introduced to develop an all weather solar cell
a. Chinese researchers have successfully created an all weather solar cell which can generate electricity even during the rainy season.
b. They have used a coat of a very thin layer of wonder material Graphene to create this highly efficient dye sensitised solar cell.
c. This discovery was made by the scientists from the Ocean University of China & Yunnan Normal University was published in the science journal called ‘Angewandte Chemie’.
d. During the rainy season, when the raindrop will be in the contact of Graphene, the water will become enriched in positive ions whereas graphene will be enriched in delocalised electrons. It will create a ‘pseudocapacitor’ which is a double layer of electrons and positively charged ions.
e. The potential difference with pseudocapacitor will help to generate voltage and current.
f. Graphene is an allotrope of carbon in the form of a two-dimensional, atomic-scale, honeycomb lattice in which one atom forms each vertex.
3. 22% growth in the Global Tiger Population
a. As per the announcements made by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) & Global Tiger Forum (GTF) the global population of tiger have increased by around 22%.
b. This has happened due to the increased support of governments, people and law enforcement agencies for this cause.
c. Previously, in 2010 the leaders of the countries with tiger populations had a meet in Russia and decided to double the tiger population of the world by 2022.
d. Recently, in New Delhi the 3rd Asian Ministerial conference on Tiger conservation took place.
4. Set of stamps issued by Royal Mail of British to mark the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare
a. To honour the legendary playwright William Shakespeare on his 400th birth anniversary, Royal Mail of British has issued a set of special postage stamps.
b. These stamps feature famous phrases & lines from shakespeare’s plays like Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet.
c. William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet, and the Bard of Avon.
5. PoochhO carpool app launched by Delhi government
a. To help people for carpooling, Delhi government has launched a new mobile app called ‘PoochhO’ during the 15 day exercise of the odd even car rationing scheme.
b. Users of this app can find carpooling options within the radius of 1 – 5 km. People providing volunteer services would be required to register their vehicle numbers with the app. This will help to categorize the vehicle numbers in an odd and even manner depending upon the odd/ even day.
c. For security reasons, women with children aged up to 12 years and in school uniform have been exempted from the scheme.
d. This app is developed by Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS).
6. Dance Bar Bill, 2016 passed in the Maharashtra state assembly
a. Dance Bar regulation bill, 2016 is recently passed in the State assembly of Maharashtra unanimously.
b. During its hearings, the Supreme court of India have struck down two amendments with which the government of Maharashtra had banned dance bars in the state.
c. As per the bill, in case of the violation of rules, exploitation of women employees or in case of obscenity, the owner of the bar will be accountable and will be penalised with imprisonment for five years or Rs. 25,000/-
d. The timings of dance bars will be restricted from 6PM to 11.30 PM and serving of the liquor in the dance bar is completely banned.
7. Meera Borwankar appointed as Director General of Bureau of Police Research and Development
a. Meera Borwankar, a Maharashtra cadre IPS officer is recently appointed as the Director General of Bureau of Police development (BPR & D). BPR & D is the consulting organization under the Centre for modernization of police force.
b. She will be on this post till 30th September, 2017 , the date of her superannuation.
c. The BPR & D was set up in 1970 with an aim to modernise the police forces.
8. Gurgaon and Mewat will soon be renamed
a. As per new recommendations made by the Haryana government, Gurgaon will be renamed as Gurugram and Mewat as Nuh.
b. The change of the name of the city of Gurgaon is due to the several recommendations made by the forum of citizens of the city. Previously in ancient ages, the city was well known as the centre of learning where Kauravas & Pandavas have learnt their lessons from Guru Dronacharya.
c. The headquarters of Mewat district is called as Nuh. It’s name will be changed as per the demands of the people of the area and the elected representative.
9. Shiv Chawrasia becomes Hilton Asian Tour Golfer of the Month of March
a. Shiv Shankar Prasad Chawrasia was honoured as the Hilton Asian Tour Golfer of the Month for March 2016 in Sentosa, Singapore on 12th April 2016.
b. Chawrasia showed excellence by winning the third Asian tour title in the National Open, March 2016 by defeating 2015 Hilton Asian Tour Golfer of the Year Anirban Lahiri and Korean rising star Jeung Hun Wang by two shots.
c. Hilton Asian Tour Golfer of the Month award is one of the partnership initiatives which recognizes the outstanding efforts of Asian Tour members both at home and abroad.
d. Chawrasia, also known as Chipputtsia and Chow, is a self taught Indian professional golfer and hails from Kolkata.
10. Airtel payments bank approved by RBI
a. The first payments bank licence was granted by RBI to Airtel M Commerce Services (AMSL), a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel.
b. AMSL offers mobile services under the brand name of Airtel money. With this nod from RBI the AMSL’s current pre-paid payment instrument licence will be converted into the payments banks licence.
c. As per the guidelines issued by RBI, the payment banks are established as differentiated banks with an aim to acceptance of demand deposits, remittance services, internet banking and other specified services.
d. These banks can also distribute non-risk sharing simple financial products like mutual funds and insurance products.
11. Padma Sachdev selected for Saraswati Samman 2015
a. The prestigious Saraswati Samman 2015 will be conferred upon veteran author and poet Padma Sachdev for her autobiography ‘Chitt-Chete’.
b. The book is written in Dogri language and was published in 2007. It contains the various events in her life, her personal relations with eminent personas of her age etc.
c. Padma Sachdev is a well known poet in Dogri language. She has received Sahitya Academy Award in 1971 for her poetry book ‘Meri Kavita Mere Geet’.
d. In year 2001, she was conferred with Padma Shri award. Madhya Pradesh government also honoured her with the Kabir Samman award in 2007-08.
e. The Saraswati Samman is an annual award for outstanding prose or poetry literary works in any 22 Indian language listed in Schedule VIII of the Constitution of India. It was instituted by K K Birla foundation in 1991.
12. Viswanathan Anand received the Hridaynath Mangeshkar Award 2016
a. Veteran Chess player, Viswanathan Anand, has received the prestigious Hridaynath Mangeshkar award by Maharashtra governor C Vidyasagar Rao during the celebrations of 25th anniversary of the Hridayesh Arts which gives these awards.
b. With this, he joined other personalities who have received this award like Lata Mangeshkar, Babasaheb Purandare, Asha Bhosle, Amitabh Bachchan, Hariprasad Chaurasia and AR Rahman.